bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation

bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation

[Mor Zahavi via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 71 bytes --]

Hi,

Shouldn’t it be “… many kinds of atoms”?

Mor Zahavi

[-- Attachment #2.1: Type: text/html, Size: 568 bytes --]

[-- Attachment #2.2: PastedGraphic-1.png --]
[-- Type: image/png, Size: 555763 bytes --]

bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation

[Stefan Kangas]

close 51271 28.1
thanks

Mor Zahavi <morzahavi@me.com> writes:

> Shouldn’t it be “… many kinds of atoms”?

This is the text from (info "(eintr) Lisp Atoms"):

       There are many kinds of atom in nature but only a few in Lisp: for
    example, “numbers”, such as 37, 511, or 1729, and “symbols”, such as
    ‘+’, ‘foo’, or ‘forward-line’.

I think that it should indeed be "many kinds of atoms" here, so I have
now fixed this on emacs-28 (commit 98eb6d783a).  This change will be a
part of the upcoming Emacs 28.1.

Thanks for the bug report!

bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation

[morzahavi@me.com via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 839 bytes --]

Hi

You didn’t fix it

[Emacs 29 native comp]

From: Stefan Kangas <stefan@marxist.se>
Date: Tuesday, 19 October 2021 at 3:45
To: Mor Zahavi <morzahavi@me.com>
Cc: 51271@debbugs.gnu.org <51271@debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation
close 51271 28.1
thanks

Mor Zahavi <morzahavi@me.com> writes:

> Shouldn’t it be “… many kinds of atoms”?

This is the text from (info "(eintr) Lisp Atoms"):

       There are many kinds of atom in nature but only a few in Lisp: for
    example, “numbers”, such as 37, 511, or 1729, and “symbols”, such as
    ‘+’, ‘foo’, or ‘forward-line’.

I think that it should indeed be "many kinds of atoms" here, so I have
now fixed this on emacs-28 (commit 98eb6d783a).  This change will be a
part of the upcoming Emacs 28.1.

Thanks for the bug report!

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 3108 bytes --]

bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation

[Eli Zaretskii]

> Cc: "51271@debbugs.gnu.org" <51271@debbugs.gnu.org>
> Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:05:44 +0000
> From:  "morzahavi@me.com" via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs,
>  the Swiss army knife of text editors" <bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
> 
> You didn’t fix it

Stefan did fix it.  But I reverted the fix, because the original
wording was not a mistake, it's correct English.  I added a comment
there explaining why it is correct and even better than the "fixed"
one.

Thanks.

bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation

[morzahavi@me.com via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1031 bytes --]

I don’t understand – how can there be many kinds of a singular form? How can there be a few of a singular form?

Even when I replace “Atom” with “indivisible” it sounds quirky. When I use “indivisibles” it sounds much better in my opinion.

Where is the comment you’ve added?

Thanks Eli!

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
Date: Sunday, 14 November 2021 at 18:41
To: morzahavi@me.com <morzahavi@me.com>
Cc: stefan@marxist.se <stefan@marxist.se>, 51271@debbugs.gnu.org <51271@debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation
> Cc: "51271@debbugs.gnu.org" <51271@debbugs.gnu.org>
> Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:05:44 +0000
> From:  "morzahavi@me.com" via "Bug reports for GNU Emacs,
>  the Swiss army knife of text editors" <bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
>
> You didn’t fix it

Stefan did fix it.  But I reverted the fix, because the original
wording was not a mistake, it's correct English.  I added a comment
there explaining why it is correct and even better than the "fixed"
one.

Thanks.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 3525 bytes --]

bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation

[Eli Zaretskii]

> From: "morzahavi@me.com" <morzahavi@me.com>
> CC: "stefan@marxist.se" <stefan@marxist.se>, "51271@debbugs.gnu.org"
> 	<51271@debbugs.gnu.org>
> Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:59:21 +0000
> 
> I don’t understand – how can there be many kinds of a singular form? How can there be a few of a singular
> form?

It's a special English form that is relatively rarely used.  But it is
nevertheless correct.

> Where is the comment you’ve added?

In the Texinfo source.  I show it below:

  @c This and the next paragraph say ``kinds of atom'', but that is not
  @c a typo, just slightly ``old-fashioned wording which adds a fillip
  @c of interest to it'', and ``is more elegant writing'', according to
  @c RMS.

As you see, I consulted with Richard Stallman about this issue,
because I had a gut feeling the original wording was correct, but
wasn't sure.  Bob Chassell, who wrote that manual, always used 100%
correct English.

bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation

[morzahavi@me.com via Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1285 bytes --]

Great – I have learned something new.

Thanks Eli for all your work.

From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
Date: Sunday, 14 November 2021 at 19:14
To: morzahavi@me.com <morzahavi@me.com>
Cc: stefan@marxist.se <stefan@marxist.se>, 51271@debbugs.gnu.org <51271@debbugs.gnu.org>
Subject: Re: bug#51271: Typo's in Emacs documentation
> From: "morzahavi@me.com" <morzahavi@me.com>
> CC: "stefan@marxist.se" <stefan@marxist.se>, "51271@debbugs.gnu.org"
>        <51271@debbugs.gnu.org>
> Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2021 16:59:21 +0000
>
> I don’t understand – how can there be many kinds of a singular form? How can there be a few of a singular
> form?

It's a special English form that is relatively rarely used.  But it is
nevertheless correct.

> Where is the comment you’ve added?

In the Texinfo source.  I show it below:

  @c This and the next paragraph say ``kinds of atom'', but that is not
  @c a typo, just slightly ``old-fashioned wording which adds a fillip
  @c of interest to it'', and ``is more elegant writing'', according to
  @c RMS.

As you see, I consulted with Richard Stallman about this issue,
because I had a gut feeling the original wording was correct, but
wasn't sure.  Bob Chassell, who wrote that manual, always used 100%
correct English.

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 3435 bytes --]